The artwork for Dragon's Time, the new Pern novel by Anne and Todd McCaffrey is now in the Fantasy Gallery. You'll recognise it because it features a great big dragon
"Pern Alert" Les has just finished the artwork for Dragon's Time by Anne and Todd McCaffrey. This will be published by Del Rey in the US and by Bantam in the UK. The original concept came from Art director David Stevenson of Del Rey and it's turned out to be a very dramatic piece. Let's hope tha the legions of Pern fans like it. "Oh the pressure!"

Cover for the Anne & Todd McCaffrey novel due out in 2011. Commissioned by Del Rey in the USA and also to be used on the UK cover for Bantam.

I had a lot fun with this addition to the Pern series. I spent a lot of time trying to paint the reflections from the snowy ground on the dragon's skin. I was trying to create the effect of a Jumbo Jet lifting off.
---http://www.lesedwards.com/showpic.php?id=&pid=731
Dragon Time

From the Weyr and from the Bowl
Bronze and Brown and Blue and Green,
Rise the dragonmen of Pern,
Aloft, on wing, seen, then unseen.
Dragonman avoid excess
Greed will bring the Weyr distress;
To the ancient Laws adhere,
Prospers thus the Dragon-weyr.

:rofl2: you are something there P'ter, but that was what I was thinking. Or trying to take off at the shortest runway, which ends at a cliff over looking the sea, crossed with the highest one on Earth. something I've recalled seeing on the History Channel.

Ginny sorry if it sounded like I was taking my frustrations out but I honestly spent several minutes trying to work it out and then eventually I said "stuff it" to myself and looked it up. Think you did a good job for bringing it to our attention though Well done.

Ginny sorry if it sounded like I was taking my frustrations out but I honestly spent several minutes trying to work it out and then eventually I said "stuff it" to myself and looked it up. Think you did a good job for bringing it to our attention though Well done.

No problem mate, there is something about click on tumbnails, but I didn't quite get it, over at Les site but I've said before, I'm a user not a tech person.

From the Weyr and from the Bowl
Bronze and Brown and Blue and Green,
Rise the dragonmen of Pern,
Aloft, on wing, seen, then unseen.
Dragonman avoid excess
Greed will bring the Weyr distress;
To the ancient Laws adhere,
Prospers thus the Dragon-weyr.

I haven't read any of Todd's books, but I'm asking those who did: which Hold is this? It reminds me of a picture of Ruatha from, I think, Moreta that I saw on Amazon.

I just looked through the Atlas of Pern, which has the most Hold-maps that can be considered canon, and none of those depicted (Fort, Ruatha, Nabol, Telgar, Half Circle, Igen, Southern, Cove) has that outer building with the high viaduct (arch with a roadway on top) leading back into the cliff-hold.

Most if not all the major northern holds were initially built into a cliff with caves behind it, wings being built outward as needed when the population outgrew the original installation. That viaduct would be more decorative than useful during a Pass. Nice-looking, though.

Of course, there may have been other hold designs during the intervals, especially during the second half of the first Long Interval, when people probably thought Thread was gone for good. And the Atlas of Pern doesn't show all the Holds.

From the Weyr and from the Bowl
Bronze and Brown and Blue and Green,
Rise the dragonmen of Pern,
Aloft, on wing, seen, then unseen.
Dragonman avoid excess
Greed will bring the Weyr distress;
To the ancient Laws adhere,
Prospers thus the Dragon-weyr.

It might have been built midway between 2 Passes, with plans to add the Thread-shedding roof before the next Pass. Does anyone know when Dragon's Time takes place, or whether it flips back into a previous Interval?

Well we haven't seen anything about Crom, or Bita Hold, good telling of that Hold in Dragonseye/Red Star Rising, Some about Crom and a few other in the co-written ones, It remind me of another book. Can't recall which one.

Well we haven't seen anything about Crom, or Bita Hold, good telling of that Hold in Dragonseye/Red Star Rising, Some about Crom and a few other in the co-written ones, It remind me of another book. Can't recall which one.

Well, Bitra Hold WAS built during the First Interval (if I remember correctly), so it may have infringed a few of the rules for Hold-building. But looking through Red Star Rising/DragonsEye, I don't see any reference to a building outside the cliff, and the planning session for the invasion of Chalkin's domain only mentions the various levels within the Hold.

I suspect the cover art was done by someone who'd seen pictures of all those holds that look like cliffs with lots of windows, thought they looked boring, and just added on a mediaeval fort in front.

Well, Bitra Hold WAS built during the First Interval (if I remember correctly), so it may have infringed a few of the rules for Hold-building. But looking through Red Star Rising/DragonsEye, I don't see any reference to a building outside the cliff, and the planning session for the invasion of Chalkin's domain only mentions the various levels within the Hold.

I suspect the cover art was done by someone who'd seen pictures of all those holds that look like cliffs with lots of windows, thought they looked boring, and just added on a mediaeval fort in front.

There was the re-visit on the outside of it, from Fort's Weyrleder, and the change between the two. No more dead vines, weed trees, and no one coming in from the outer holds.

My feeling is that it must be Fort hold, because it's the only one I remember actually being carved out of the mountain like that. Plus which, isn't Fiona from Fort Hold, and currently the Fort Weyrwoman?

My feeling is that it must be Fort hold, because it's the only one I remember actually being carved out of the mountain like that. Plus which, isn't Fiona from Fort Hold, and currently the Fort Weyrwoman?

Does Fort get snow though?

I'm pretty sure Fort gets snow - wasn't the colder weather part of the argument against it as the initial landing site in Dragonsdawn?

I'm pretty sure Fort gets snow - wasn't the colder weather part of the argument against it as the initial landing site in Dragonsdawn?

No, the northern hemisphere was in the middle of winter when they arrived, and the settlers needed to get their agriculture started as soon as possible. They looked at 3 sites in the south --- one was water-logged and the other was far enough south to be near freezing, so they chose the one near the volcanoes.

The slope of the roofs on exposed buildings doesn't appear unusually steep in the available pictures (in DLG and the Atlas of Pern), but they all seem to have sloping roofs. Just not the ultra-steep ones you get in very snowy areas (maybe High Reaches has this style).

The cliff-tops above the cliff-holds generally have a network of gutters cut into the rock, filled with pitch (a.k.a. tar) which is ignited before Threadfall to burn any Thread that might land on top and slither down the cliff-face or get carried away by the wind to where it can do some damage. Hence the term 'fire-heights'.

I just found Dragon's Fire at my local library and signed it out. It may a while before I can start reading it, but according to the blurb, the action seems to be based on Camp Natalon (somewhere near Crom Hold?).

OOPS --- wrong book --- NOT Dragons time. So long since I read it, I thought it was a new one.

Eriflor.

Last edited by Eriflor; Feb 14 2011 at 10:25 PM.
Reason: Realised it wasn't the book named in subject line

For the first time in more than three years, bestselling authors Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey, mother and son, have teamed up again to do what they do best: add a fresh chapter to the most beloved science fiction series of all time, the Dragonriders of Pern.

Even though Lorana cured the plague that was killing the dragons of Pern, sacrificing her queen dragon in the process, the effects of the disease were so devastating that there are no longer enough dragons available to fight the fall of deadly Thread. And as the situation grows more dire, a pregnant Lorana decides that she must take drastic steps in the quest for help. Meanwhile, back at Telgar Weyr, Weyrwoman Fiona, herself pregnant, and the harper Kindan must somehow keep morale from fading altogether in the face of the steadily mounting losses of dragons and their riders. But time weighs heavily against them - until Lorana finds a way to use time itself in their favor. It's a plan fraught with risk, however. For attempting time travel means tampering with the natural laws of the universe, which could drastically alter history - and destiny - forever. Or so it has always been thought. But Lorana discovers that if the laws of time can't be broken without consequences, it may still be possible to bend them. To ensure the future of Pern, she's willing to take the fateful chance - even if it demands another, even greater, sacrifice

I just found Dragon's Fire at my local library and signed it out. It may a while before I can start reading it, but according to the blurb, the action seems to be based on Camp Natalon (somewhere near Crom Hold?).

OOPS --- wrong book --- NOT Dragons time. So long since I read it, I thought it was a new one.

Eriflor.

That OK, its still a Camp but by the time the begining of Third Pass its Mine Natalon its one severday via trader caravan north of Crom Hold.